A blog for members of Westbury Baptist Church, people who want to know more about our ministry, or people who just want to chat.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

A Simple Plan to Change the World

When
we were kids, my brother and I loved watching movies with our dad.To my mother’s consternation, there were
certain movies we liked watching over and over again.One of these was The Magnificent Seven, in
which a Mexican village is continually attacked by a ruthless gang of
bandits.So the villagers approach a
gunfighter, played by Yul Brynner (the Eastern European gunfighter, a very big
deal in the Old West), to defend them.The gunfighter then recruits a team of righteous outlaws to help him
overthrow the forces of evil, men like Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and
James Coburn.I didn’t realize it at the
time, but The Magnificent Seven is actually a remake of a Japanese film, The
Seven Samurai.That same theme has been
repeated over and over again in movie history; an elite team of heroes is
assembled to use their various skills and cunning to rescue the helpless and
destroy evil—think of The Avengers last summer.And so it was that when the God of the Universe wanted to rescue this
world, He formed a team of His own.Only
He could redeem us from our sins, but He chose twelve men to form the most
significant movement in human history, an army who would take the saving
message of redemption to the uttermost parts of the Earth.Luke 6 tells us that Jesus chose them after
spending an entire night alone in prayer.This was no casual decision.He
wanted only the right men on His team.Today,
we know those men’s names well.We name
our sons after them, as well as cities, universities, and hospitals.And we are part of the movement they began, a
religion that claims up to 1/3 of the world’s population. Christianity has changed our world more than
any other human movement.For a very simple
example, think about what year it is: It’s 2013 years since the presumed date
of Jesus’ birth.Christianity gave rise
to concepts that are key to the way we live, such as the university system,
public education, hospitals, and ideas like the responsibility of a society to
care for the weak, and the full personhood of children.As Christians, we believe Christianity’s
greatest contribution to mankind has been spreading the saving message of Jesus
Christ so that millions are experiencing eternal life today; but even if you
don’t believe that, you have to admit that the world is a better place because
of what began with those 12 men chosen by our Lord.But
there’s still pervasive evil in our world.What is God’s plan?The plan
hasn’t changed; He continues to assemble His team.In every generation, He seeks men and women
who will follow in the footsteps of those original Twelve to penetrate the
darkness with courage and compassion, rescuing the world for Him.That’s us.We are His elite team. Jesus
is sending you and me out today to do what those first disciples did.Someday, each of us is going to stand in
judgment before Him.And thank God, our
salvation is not in question; that has been settled at the cross for all who
believe.But as Jesus said in the
parable of the talents, He our master has left us with certain opportunities,
and when He comes back, He’ll want to know what we’ve done with those opportunities.I don’t want to be the one who buried my
stuff in the ground and lived for myself.I want to represent Him well.That’s what I’ll be preaching about all this year: Representing Christ
in a Non-Christian Culture.About
mid-way through last year, when I started to think this was the direction we
needed to go in 2013, I started asking you and some Christian friends outside
of WBC “What are the main obstacles we face in trying to represent Christ
well?”I got some great feedback.Then I spent the better part of a week alone
in a house Carrie’s sister owns in the Hill Country.Brutally suffering for Christ, in other
words.I spent those days studying the
people in Scripture who represented the Lord well in times of moral uncertainty
and rampant unbelief.What were the
characteristics that God used in their lives to enable them to change the world
for good?What do we need to do in order
to live out those same characteristics, to live in a way that is compelling and
transformational to everyone we see?I came up with a preaching schedule for 2013 called Mission Impossible: Representing Christ in a Non-Christian Culture. This Sunday, we'll kick it off by looking at what Jesus required of His original 12 disciples...and what He still requires of you and me. Here's a basic outline of the rest of the year's schedule: